I've got an Acer Aspire 5720 (laptop), it's about 3 years old now and runs Windows 7 Ultimate (It came with Vista). I'm spending some money replacing some parts on it and I'm looking into whether or not I should upgrade the memory. It's got 2 GB of RAM so as you'd guess while its not too bad for everyday browsing, introducing any kind of memory intense programmes creates alot of stuttering.

It's got 2 x 1GB modules, so my two options would be to either to upgrade to 3GB or spend the same amount again and upgrade to 4GB

My question is whether it's worth going the extra mile and upgrading to 4GB? Most mid range laptops these days seem to come with with 3GB as standard so is there any advantage to 4GB?. I realise 32 bit Windows won't support more than 3.5 so I'd need to invest in a 64 bit installation to get the most out of 4GB.

You would certainly benefit from the extra RAM for memory intensive programs, but another thing you need to check is how much RAM your motherboard will support. You should be able to find this information on the Acer site under your specific model.

According to the specs for Aspire 5720 it supports up to 4 GB RAM, and dual channel mode. If you opt to use 3 GB RAM, the laptop will no longer run in dual channel mode (because the two sticks aren't matched), and performance will probably be less than if you stay with 2 GB. So if you do upgrade, go with 2X 2 GB RAM that are the same.

According to the specs for Aspire 5720 it supports up to 4 GB RAM, and dual channel mode. If you opt to use 3 GB RAM, the laptop will no longer run in dual channel mode (because the two sticks aren't matched), and performance will probably be less than if you stay with 2 GB. So if you do upgrade, go with 2X 2 GB RAM that are the same.

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